OOC: WINNING.
Ho. Lee. Shit.
I've been dying to write about today, because it was SO AWESOME. Turns out my fears about my lesson were completely, completely unnecessary. My boss was kind of shocked because five minutes in Adam (my coworker/instructor) and I were laughing hysterically. One-on-one like that and in a situation where my Socially Awkward Penguin-ness can't kick in (like at a bar) we actually found stuff to talk about and joke about. Good times!
Beyond the social triumph today was a big deal for another reason. When I was thirteen I quit riding lessons because (as I found out recently) my mom was getting uncomfortable with the lesson plan. Something about the rising trot just really freaked her out. It was also something I struggled with back then and I was pretty mad at myself that I never did get it right before we quit. Having been riding again recently, the rising trot was again the bane of my existence. I honestly did believe that I would be stuck at [crappy] walk/trot forever and never get to try cantering and jumping like everyone else.
Sovereign and I were working on this for days and the best we ever did was this awkward "circle" where I wanted him on the wall and he ended up in the middle of the ring and it was disaster. On top of that he'd only make it about a quarter of the way around the ring before he'd abruptly walk again. Abrupt enough that I've had to grab mane a few times to avoid going right over his ears. Blegh.
Today it was almost surreal. I found it difficult to wrap my head around it at the time that I was doing it right. Initially it was the same awkward motion, but Adam had a really neat trick to get me to learn it right without even telling me. In forcing me to sit the trot for a lap and KEEP HIM TROTTING AND KEEP HIM ON THE RAIL I wasn't thinking about the motion. Then, when it came to actually post my body seemed to WANT to because my muscles had picked up on the rhythm. I stopped standing in the stirrups and it felt much better. There were also little tricks he let me in on like how to keep him moving by subtle changes with my legs while I was on the downbeat.
I am SO relieved.
However, Sovereign is sort of the "set it and forget it" horse. Once he gets that you're the boss and he needs to be on the rail, he's pretty glued. I suspect I'll be put through my paces on the other lesson horses before I finally graduate to something more difficult. I'll miss my Percheron buddy on those off-weeks, but I'll be thrilled to have the chance to try out the other horses and learn their little personality differences and actually learn to ride and not just learn to ride Sovereign.
My legs and all the rest of my muscles hurt but it's a good and satisfying hurt. This is probably one of those nights where sleepiness quietly pwns me when I least expect it and I fall asleep in the middle of whatever I'm doing. >_> If I exercised more regularly this wouldn't happen. Derp.
I've been dying to write about today, because it was SO AWESOME. Turns out my fears about my lesson were completely, completely unnecessary. My boss was kind of shocked because five minutes in Adam (my coworker/instructor) and I were laughing hysterically. One-on-one like that and in a situation where my Socially Awkward Penguin-ness can't kick in (like at a bar) we actually found stuff to talk about and joke about. Good times!
Beyond the social triumph today was a big deal for another reason. When I was thirteen I quit riding lessons because (as I found out recently) my mom was getting uncomfortable with the lesson plan. Something about the rising trot just really freaked her out. It was also something I struggled with back then and I was pretty mad at myself that I never did get it right before we quit. Having been riding again recently, the rising trot was again the bane of my existence. I honestly did believe that I would be stuck at [crappy] walk/trot forever and never get to try cantering and jumping like everyone else.
Sovereign and I were working on this for days and the best we ever did was this awkward "circle" where I wanted him on the wall and he ended up in the middle of the ring and it was disaster. On top of that he'd only make it about a quarter of the way around the ring before he'd abruptly walk again. Abrupt enough that I've had to grab mane a few times to avoid going right over his ears. Blegh.
Today it was almost surreal. I found it difficult to wrap my head around it at the time that I was doing it right. Initially it was the same awkward motion, but Adam had a really neat trick to get me to learn it right without even telling me. In forcing me to sit the trot for a lap and KEEP HIM TROTTING AND KEEP HIM ON THE RAIL I wasn't thinking about the motion. Then, when it came to actually post my body seemed to WANT to because my muscles had picked up on the rhythm. I stopped standing in the stirrups and it felt much better. There were also little tricks he let me in on like how to keep him moving by subtle changes with my legs while I was on the downbeat.
I am SO relieved.
However, Sovereign is sort of the "set it and forget it" horse. Once he gets that you're the boss and he needs to be on the rail, he's pretty glued. I suspect I'll be put through my paces on the other lesson horses before I finally graduate to something more difficult. I'll miss my Percheron buddy on those off-weeks, but I'll be thrilled to have the chance to try out the other horses and learn their little personality differences and actually learn to ride and not just learn to ride Sovereign.
My legs and all the rest of my muscles hurt but it's a good and satisfying hurt. This is probably one of those nights where sleepiness quietly pwns me when I least expect it and I fall asleep in the middle of whatever I'm doing. >_> If I exercised more regularly this wouldn't happen. Derp.